The future of golf? Look east -- waaaay east

Torrey Pines, CA_7/12/13_Junior World Media Day .Guan Tianlang, 14, of China puts his club away after playing the 3rd hole at Torrey Pines South Golf Course during Media Day for the Callaway Golf Junior World Championship. Misael Virgen/UT San Diego
Misael Virgen

Torrey Pines, CA_7/12/13_Junior World Media Day .Guan Tianlang, 14, of China puts his club away after playing the 3rd hole at Torrey Pines South Golf Course during Media Day for the Callaway Golf Junior World Championship. Misael Virgen/UT San Diego

Of the 1,231 players competing in this week’s Junior World Golf championships, just 24 are from China, and that means exactly this: squat.

The Chinese may represent less than 2 percent of the field, but the same is true of Kenyans in marathons, and they’ve never lost to some guy named Brad.

America’s movement, our manifest destiny, began in the colonies and stretched westward to California. But golf’s movement? That’s traveling in a different direction entirely and currently resides in the East.

The Far East, that is.

“I definitely see an increase,” said Chris Mayson, director of instruction at Maderas Golf Club. “I see the influx and feel like it’s growing like crazy.”

The “it” Mayson describes is the interest in golf among China’s youth, which is surging kind of the way Bob Filner’s reputation is not. Five years ago, Mayson said, he didn’t have a single Chinese student, but now golfers from that country make up 30 percent of his business.

The reason for this initial spike stems from the IOC announcing golf as an Olympic sport for 2016 and 2020, which prompted golf’s popularity in China to make a Friendster-to-Facebook type of leap. But with Tianlang Guan making the cut at the Masters last April at 14 years old? This may be the onset of a Ping Dynasty.

The future of youth golf — or adult golf, for that matter — in China cannot be determined. But what has already taken place cannot be denied.

In 2011, Guan won the Junior World boys’ 11-12 division by 11 strokes. His compatriot, Xiang Sui, won the girls’ 11-12 division by the same margin.

Ling Kun Kong claimed the boys’ 11-12 title in last year’s Future Champions Junior Masters, which, according to tournament director Chris Smeal, featured 15 Chinese participants. This year’s tourney had 33, and next year’s, Smeal predicted, will “probably double. I don’t know how they all get here.”

What they do once they arrive, however, is a whole lot less mysterious.

Mayson certainly doesn’t want to belittle the rest of his clientele, most of which give the maddening sport he teaches its required reverence. But there is something about the Chinese work ethic, he says — something about these kids’ discipline that allows them to turn pars into birdies, 72s into 69s, and second-runner-up finishes into 18th-green trophy hoists.

Smeal sees it, too. And it’s not going away.

“They’re all in it. They’re in it to go all the way,” Smeal said. “Their work ethic is better. They’re willing to put their social life on hold. They’re here for golf and school. It’s hard to beat.”

From a teaching perspective, the resources in the U.S. are superior to those in China, where golf is still a fledgling sport. Hence the growing number of students under established pros’ tutelage — not to mention the increasing requests to play in American tournaments.

But what does this mean for the future of golf? A Chinese golfer has yet to win a PGA event, let alone contend for a major championship, but is it possible that, in 20 years, the Chinese will populate the PGA Tour the way South Koreans do the LPGA Tour?

You can’t rule it out.

Recently, on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” co-host Tony Kornheiser downplayed the U.S. men’s soccer team’s World Cup qualifying win over Panama, arguing that the United States having a population 100 times the size of the Central American country should ensure a victory. Later in the show, Tony Reali quipped, “Just booked my ticket for the World Cup final — China vs. India! Population wins!”

Obviously, a country’s success in a sport goes beyond how many people play it. Still, when a nation of 1.1 billion suddenly discovers a game that it can devote immeasurable resources toward, you’d better watch out.